Mr. Tan

Chapter 61: Count Your Blessings

Its been a month since Roman has been born. Its now getting close to Christmas and Ava's 13th birthday. Thanksgiving was okay at best, it consisted of food from Dixieland Burger. Roman is our big, beautiful baby boy, and full of joy. His hair is so soft, curly, thick and shiny. Its the blackest black I have ever seen, and his eyes are so big, full of life and an awesome silverish gray. His skin is so soft and its the shade of toffee. He laughs when his chubby little cheeks are pinched. Earl and I bathe him in the kitchen sink because we feel he's not ready for the bath tub yet. Duke loves Roman, and I think Roman loves him, too. He tugs on Duke's ears and tail but Duke doesn't seem to mind. Roman has the loudest cries ever, and they WILL interrupt your quiet time or sleep. Since he's my first born, I get scared whenever I hear him cry because I quickly assume something is wrong. Earl and Ava are good at calming me down whenever I hear him cry. It usually means its time for a diaper change, he's hungry, or he has gas. All three of us smother him with lots of love and attention. I hear Ava outside bragging about her new baby brother. Needless to say, this boy has one hell of an appetite. When we are here at home, I breast feed him. I have a breast pump to fill his bottle with my milk and have it ready for him when we are out in public. I do not trust that store bought baby formula. He gets his milk in the morning, his baby food for lunch and dinner, and more breast milk before he goes to bed after bath time. Earl loves holding him and he reads to him at night, already, my man is reading to our son. Ava loves playing with him using his baby toys and hearing him laugh. Earl is hoping to get a play pin for him and to baby proof the trailer as best as he can. Temperatures in the Delta have been in the upper 40's to lower 50's on most days, sometimes we get temperatures in the 30's. Oh, trust me when I say this, we dress our little boy. He has all kinds of pants, shirts, little shoes, hoodies, a little coat, hats, mittens, all that. We always let Ava pick out his outfit of the day, and she does a damn good job. Whenever he starts getting fussy, that means its time for a nap or he's bored. He has two car seats, one for my car and one for Earl's, and his sky blue baby stroller, it has suns and clouds on it. My body has changed a bit, too. My breast went from being large C's to double D's. My butt has gotten bigger and my hips are more thicker. I have stretch marks on my stomach, which is fine because they aren't that noticeable. Where my stomach use to be flat, there's a slight pudge.

"You thicker than a bowl o' grits, an' I love it" Earl would say to me. I likes 'em thick, it looks good on ya. 

Earl always knows what to say to make me feel beautiful. The house was decorated for Christmas, since it was a week away. Ava helped her dad decorate the Christmas tree, and I hung the holiday reef outside on the front door. Since this was Ava's first Christmas living here and our son's very first Christmas, Earl wanted to go all out. Roman and Duke even had on a little Santa hat, and they both seemed pleased. Earl handled the Christmas shopping at the beginning of the month. Believe it or not, I had a little bit of cash left over and some money on my debit card, $60.00 cash and $98.68 on my debit card. Yesterday afternoon, I left the baby at home with Earl and Ava while I drove to the Cleveland Shopping Center and did a little Christmas shopping. I bought something for Earl, something for Ava, something for our son, Kelly and Adrian. We decided to invite Kelly, Adrian, her boyfriend Adam, Adrian's great Aunt, Rhett and Miles over for a big Christmas feast and to wish Ava a happy 13th birthday. Earl gave Ava permission to invite a few friends over. She invited Rochelle, Tammy and her friend from school Mia Tate. Tonight, we lounged in front of the TV binge watching VHS movies. So far, we watched a drama, a family oriented movie, and now we're about to watch an action movie. Ava held Roman in her lap while he babbled incoherently. Ava picked up a napkin and wiped the drool from his mouth.